Federal health insurance in Wyoming up 7 percent on average

Published 11:46 am, Tuesday, July 12, 2016

CASPER, Wyo. (AP) — Some Wyoming residents will pay more for health insurance next year as rates rise 7 percent on average from the state's lone provider under the federal health care program, but people who receive subsidies to offset insurance costs could see little to no increase in their payments, officials involved with the program say.

"Given the increases we've seen across the nation, I felt pretty good about the 7 percent increase," Glause told the Casper Star-Tribune (http://bit.ly/2a4cH7A ) in a story published Tuesday.

Rates on average will rise nearly 60 percent in Texas and 44 percent in Vermont.

Blue Cross Blue Shield is the only company selling policies for Wyoming on the Affordable Care Act exchange in 2017 after WINHealth shut down its operations in December, he said.

Wendy Curran, a vice president at Blue Cross, said the 7 percent increase reflects the increasing cost of health care. Many people using the exchange haven't had health coverage for years, and research nationwide shows that patients on the exchange use more medical services and receive more in-hospital treatment than those who don't need the federal program, Curran said.

"We pick up more care from people who didn't have insurance," she said. "And because they hadn't had routine care, there are often a lot of sort of pent-up medical conditions that during the first year you see the doctor and you have to take care of it."

Costs are also rising because of new requirements for covering preventative care, such as colorectal exams, Curran said.

While the government previously mandated that insurance companies on the exchange cover colorectal exams, surgery to remove polyps found wasn't covered before and is now.

Nearly 24,000 Wyoming residents paid for plans on the exchange this year, according to recent data.

Rate hikes won't affect everyone equally because most Wyoming residents qualify for subsidies that reduce the costs of their premiums, said Tracy Brosius of the Wyoming Institute of Population Health, an exchange education group affiliated with Cheyenne Regional Medical Center.

"So depending on where they are on the spectrum, that 7 percent may or may not make an impact," she said.